They say that a chain is as strong as its weakest link, and when it comes to cracking the encryption code of a computer, a bunch of researchers have made a rather startling discovery. What they did was to listen to the different sounds that a computer’s CPU made, before using that data in order to crack open the computer, which theoretically speaking, would allow even the world’s toughest encryption to be cracked wide open.
4096-bit RSA happens to be one of the most secure encryption algorithms worldwide, but researchers Daniel Genkin, Adi Shamir (co-creator of the algorithm itself) and Eran Tromer enlisted the help of a microphone in order to tune in to the sounds a computer’s CPU whenever it decrypts data. The sound is the result of the CPU regulating its voltage, with each sound emitted to represent a certain RSA key. Once you understand the RSA system of encryption, it is a simple matter of cracking the code in order to obtain full access to the data. RSA happens to be the only encryption method to be tested, and if it could be cracked, less secure methods would not be able to stand a chance either, using the same principle. Security and privacy issues, first world problems.